Wed Mar 27 23:57:46 1996

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Date: Wed, 27 Mar 1996 23:54:52 -0500 (EST)
From: Maurice Robinson 
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Subject: Re: MS survival
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On Wed, 27 Mar 1996, Vincent Broman wrote:

> We know the count of MS survivors, this is plotted in Aland's introductory
> book, but we don't know directly the count of MSS produced in a century,
> nor the rate of destruction/loss.

We at least can rightly assume less than 100% survival in any given 
century. Also, we can generally assume a greater survival rate of vellum 
MSS over papyri.  In those centuries where large numbers of MSS survive 
(i.e. the era of the minuscules) we can assume a proportional survival 
rate which is greater by far than for those centuries with only 1/100th 
of that number surviving.  

Even though no hard and fast counts can be estimated from such incomplete 
data, there is a definite use which can be made of that type of information.

> Production might be estimated from growth in Church population,
> changes in the distribution of Greek-speakers, and estimates
> of the useful lifetime of a MS which suffers no catastrophe.

This all would be a worthy target.  The first two cases might suffer from 
lack of data, but the last point, assuming vellum, would fit in well with 
the ca.500 years or more which I previously suggested.  Papyri, on the 
other hand, would still have a useful life of only 30-40 years in most 
cases, if good care were taken.  Heavy usage would definitely shorten 
papyri life, but not that of vellum.

> The proportion of MSS that survive each century would depend on
> the MS material, on whether on not book-burnings occur, climate,
> and usage of the MS, at least.

Include loss by natural disaster and accident as well (one good rainstorm 
could destroy a papyrus MS or seriously damage text on a vellum MS if 
proper care were not taken).  Climate is disastrous to papyri outside of 
Egypt, but high humidity, mold, and mildew could also seriously harm 
vellum MSS as well.

> S Lake, I think it was, suggested that the scarcity of MSS which are
> directly related to each other by descent might be due to a practice of
> destroying an exemplar after it was copied.

This claim was made in HTR 1928, based upon their sample collations of 
numerous MSS in Mt. Athos and Jerusalem.  The evidence showed no 
genealogical connection among the minuscules collated (and only 
minuscules were collated for that project), which led Lake, Blake and New 
(not S. Lake, who was then Silva New before she married Kirsopp Lake) to 
postulate that scribes usually destroyed their exemplar after a fresh 
copy was made.

That statement gives rise to certain problems, which D.A. Carson 
addressed in his critique of Pickering in his "KJV Debate" volume (Baker, 
1978).  Taken strictly, this would reduce to the absurdity that only one 
MS of any Greek NT book could ever exist *;-)  

Obviously, such was not the case.  While SOME exemplars may have been
destroyed for various reasons (and I can suggest some), it is not
reasonable to assume that such a practice occurred with great frequency,
even during the minuscule era alone.  Yet, if the known minuscule MSS
appear to show little or no genealogical connection, based upon their
collations, then the basic assumption will tend to be their relative
independence as witnesses to the text of the NT.  

The real issue involves explaining how those MSS may have become
genealogically "independent" and yet still fit into the normal stream of
transmissional history; that is part of what I intend to do in my
forthcoming paper on the non-existence of early Byzantine MSS. 


_________________________________________________________________________
Maurice A. Robinson, Ph.D.           Assoc. Prof./Greek and New Testament
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary     Wake Forest, North Carolina
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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